Nerdcuisinehttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com
A geeky take on cooking
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 02:12:40 +0000 en
hourly
1 http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/de27a416ea0a76ba4169023510cb6ea2?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngNerdcuisinehttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com
Mushroom Seasonhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/mushroom-season/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/mushroom-season/#respondTue, 05 Sep 2017 09:27:10 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/mushroom-season/Not to dwell on the scarcity of posts because of diverted interest (haven’t had time to brew beer since before Christmas either) I think it’s time to drop a line or two about recent mushroom hunting adventures.

I enjoy mushroom hunting very much and view it as upholding a tradition inherited from my grandmother. With kids and school and work and whatnot there hasn’t always been time lately though. For example, 2014 was a legendary year for King Bolete here, but I didn’t manage to pick a single one.

This year I forced action by buying a dehydrator and introducing a mushroom theme in my teaching. Also, NC junior, at three and a half, is big enough to move around on her own in the forest.

At my parents’ cabin we’ve walked some distance to get to good mushroom grounds, but it turns out the forest just behind the house was even better. Only took 13 years to find out…

From the new forest we got our first batch of dehydrator material. Yellowfoot, king bolete, bay bolete and orange birch bolete. Golden chanterelles don’t dehydrate well.

Sunday took us closer to home, to an area we tried last year, resulting in three chanterelles and five lingonberries. A well visited neck of the woods, we correctly assumed most boletes and chanterelles would have been picked off already. Luckily, less widely known tasty mushrooms, like orange milk-cap and slimy spike-cap were still available, as well as a few bay boletes and spruce bolete.

That’s picking and drying done. So, what about cooking? The dried ones were of course saved for later as dried mushrooms keep indefinitely. The milk-caps, spike-caps and a bare-toothed russula (apparently also known as The Flirt) went in the pot instead since they don’t dry well. Terminology is unclear, but I’d call what I did parboiling. Simply put chopped mushrooms in a pot, add some salt and heat. The mushrooms will start sweating and the juices will eventually boil off, leaving well cooked mushrooms, greatly reduced in bulk and ideal for freezing. No fat added.

We’re planning more mushroom gathering trips in the near future, so watch this space for updates! Here are a few more mushroom photographs for fun. Might add names later, but I’m posting from phone and it’s a bit cumbersome to flip back and forth between apps.

Fast forward a few days and found myself without dinner late at night after struggling considerably with putting the child to bed (and falling asleep myself)

A vision of Tonkotsu Ramen noodle soup appeared for my inner vision. Problem is, while it’s street food in Japan, the broth alone takes over 12 hours to prepare and the eggs at least four. So I had to wing it and cheat.

In a pot I combined finely sliced onion, carrot and ramsons (aka wild garlic), a handful of edamame beans and a small amount of ground up dried mushrooms. A cup of chicken stock followed, seasoned with soy sauce, mirin and fish sauce.

Broth brought to a simmer I added paper thin slices of brined pork neck that I had set aside while making pulled pork the night before.

In another pot an egg was boiled for six minutes and then fished out and peeled while the noodles cooked in the same water for two minutes.

Noodles transferred to bowl, broth poured over, egg sliced and plopped on top (without marinating for four hours), various condiments sprinkled.

While obviously a weak, adulterated shadow of the real thing, I found this bowl of food incredibly tasty. Further attempts to home in on the original are in pipeline.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/when-in-doubt-ramen/feed/0img_6548-1oskilaDeserted? No, but distractedhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/deserted-no-but-distracted/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/deserted-no-but-distracted/#respondFri, 16 Sep 2016 07:43:05 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1206If this blog has any followers left they’re probably wondering what’s happened to NerdCuisine. I’m alive and well, but have been distracted from food blogging by the fell beast that is homebrewing. The beer brewing operation did get its own blog. In the future I might be able to keep both a bit more active.

The dough is easy enough. According to the recipe I looked at, one should combine wheat flour with boiling water to produce a soft dough that doesn’t stick too much.

Traditional wonton filling usually includes pork. I had recently landed a considerable amount of bacon, which is technically pork. Also used were savoy cabbage, spring onions, wood ear mushroom and Chinese five-spice.

The resulting dumplings might not be the prettiest ones you’ve seen, but not too shabby for a rushed first attempt.

While the dumplings steamed away I attempted some kind of sweet and sour sauce based on rice vinegar and canned pineapple without looking too closely at actual recipes.

Dumplings post steam. While they turned out quite nice, it’s entirely possible that I failed with the dough on account of them sticking to the steamer like if glued.

Finished dumplings and sauce along with store-bought tamarind/date sauce that is more of an Indian persuasion than Chinese (but tasty) and a sprinkle of chopped spring onions.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/12/29/baconated-dumplings/feed/0IMG_8067oskilaIMG_8062IMG_8063IMG_8064Moose Peposohttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/moose-peposo/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/moose-peposo/#respondSat, 21 Nov 2015 15:04:09 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1144For some reason our local shop has started offering comparatively cheap game meat relatively regularly. This time they sold stewing bits of moose cheaper than beef.

Foodstuffs I don’t normally buy, like game, come with enough sense of occasion to also provoke a blog post, which is why this is the third installment of game meat in a short amount of time. Also, game is a bit more friendly to the environment (if not to the individual moose) than domesticated and factory-farmed meats.

I’ve had my eyes on the classic Tuscan dish Peposo for a few years now, but never actually cooked it. Legend has it the dish was invented by furnace workers who made terra-cotta tiles for the Florence cathedral. Cheap beef cooked in local Chianti wine in terra-cotta pots for hours on end. In other words, high foodie fashion some 500 years later.

It’s always fun when there’s a schism regarding original recipes. Modern recipes contain lots of tomatoes, but the dish would have originated in pre-columbian times, when tomatoes were only found in South America. I decided for something in between – adding a small spoon of tomato paste for deeper umami flavor.

Personally I also wonder about the amount of pepper. As far as I know pepper was very very expensive during the renaissance. Would labourers (albeit skilled) really be able to afford that amount of pepper just for an everyday stew with cheap cuts of beef? Will have to look into that…

The ingredient list is very short: Meat, Chianti, black pepper, garlic (and tomato paste). Peposo isn’t a subtle dish. For a pound of moose I used half a head of garlic, a pint of wine and ten grams of pepper (substituting half the amount for long pepper which has more spicy notes that go well with game). In an embarrassing fit of illiteracy I ground the pepper up instead of using it whole like the recipe I used for reference said. The result was quite hot, but still enjoyable.

Top-left image: Everything combined in cast iron pot and brought to a boil while the oven heats to 150° C. Top-right: Pot after an hour in the oven. Bottom-left: the two hour mark. Bottom-right: Decided to declare dinner after three and a half hours.

According to the interwebs common side dishes for peposo are sautéed spinach and beans. I decided on a slightly more Swedish option and creamed some savoy cabbage. Grilled bread is also an important part of the peposo experience.

Moose peposo smeared on bread, with creamed savoy cabbage and what was left of the wine.

Final thoughts on this moose peposo: The meat was very lean. A fattier cut would probably have done favours for the flavours. To accompany the moose I went for a quite robust type of Chianti. A lighter wine would probably have been better. Even though there seems to be quite a lot of garlic in this dish, it disappeared completely. (might not have done so if the pepper wasn’t ground)

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/moose-peposo/feed/0pepososervedoskilapeposoingredienserpeposotimelapsepeposokålVenison à la Nelson?https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/venison-a-la-nelson/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/venison-a-la-nelson/#respondFri, 30 Oct 2015 21:00:57 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1136Already a new post? It never rains but it pours…

Venison again? Yes. The grocery store offered venison at a discount again, this time cuts best suited for boiling.

À la Nelson? Why? Well, it’s slightly complicated. There’s a classic Swedish dish, the name of which translates to ‘sailor’s beef’. It’s sliced beef, onions and potatoes, stewed in beer. The sailor connection is supposedly that it’s practical to cook everything in one pot on a ship and fresh water isn’t always readily available, hence beer. A bit of googling indicates that there’s an English (or Polish) version that adds mushrooms and trades beer for stock. It’s called Steak à la Nelson. Yes, after lord Nelson, of Trafalgar fame.

I bastardized my recipe further by not only using venison instead of beef, but also wine and stock instead of beer and adding mushrooms and parsnip.

Frying a chopped portabello mushroom.

Searing the meat for a more flavoursome stock.

Thinly sliced potatoes, onions, browned venison and parsnip in a pot, together with mushrooms, various herbs, black pepper, a hint of garlic and a few juniper berries.

Deglaced pan with wine, stock and bayleaf.

After simmering everything for 45-60 minutes it’s not the prettiest of sights, but it’s how it’s supposed to look.

Finished dish along with a dollop of crème fraîche and pickled Hokkaido pumpkin (Many slow-cooked meat dishes in Swedish cuisine are traditionally served with pickled beets. Pumpkin was the least sweet pickle I had in the house. And it’s halloween soon…)

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/venison-a-la-nelson/feed/0dishoskilasvampköttpotstockstewdishBlog aten’t dead! Four years celebrationhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/blog-atent-dead-four-years-celebration/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/blog-atent-dead-four-years-celebration/#respondMon, 26 Oct 2015 08:35:37 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1133All this faffing about with having an actual job or staying at home with the sprogget steals valuable time from food blogging. I’m doing my best to stay above surface, but it’s tricky.

As it turns out, the blog turned four last week, which I noticed, but didn’t find time to post about. We’ll have to do with this week instead.

The trusty local food grocer announced ground venison at a discount and while patty isn’t my middle name, I’m drawn to the opportunity like a feegle to scumble. (Read more Pratchett if you didn’t get the reference).

Venison is typically lean meat, so bacon is always a good addition. A side dish of Feta-gratinated beets also made their way into the picture.

Mix venison with an egg, salt, pepper and possibly a ground up juniper berry or two. Shape into patties and wrap in bacon.

Beetroots boiled until soft, then peeled, sliced and put in a dish. Feta sprinkled. Bake until browned or somesuch. Experimentation with garlic, honey, sunflower seeds or the like is encouraged.

Onwards to another year. I’ll stop promising improvement, but one can hope…

Also, new camera!

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/blog-atent-dead-four-years-celebration/feed/0hjortoskilahjortHokkaido Pumpkin Souphttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/hokkaido-pumpkin-soup/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/hokkaido-pumpkin-soup/#commentsMon, 14 Sep 2015 18:21:52 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1128Today I’ll just post a dish and ignore that I’ve been off the grid since New Years. The local store offered Hokkaido pumpkins – a small pumpkin variety originating in Japan as the name suggests. One somehow followed me home.

1 Hokkaido pumpkin

1 onion

1 carrot

1 pint stock

Dig out the seeds, rinse and prepare for toasting. Chop aforementioned veggies and fry until nice. Add stock and simmer until soft. Blend until purée. Season until awesome (I used garlic, thyme, pink peppercorn and allspice). Eat until satisfied, with toasted seeds sprinkled on top. A dollop of something is probably nice too, as well as bread and cheese.

I hollowed out my pumpkin with a melon baller just for fun and used it as a serving bowl. The sandwich is grilled Camembert on sourdough batarde.

If anything in the post layout is odd it’s because I’m writing this entire post on my phone. A NerdCuisine first I think.

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https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/hokkaido-pumpkin-soup/feed/157.710687 11.99040257.71068711.990402imageoskilaimageNYE 2014 Souphttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/nye-2014-soup/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/nye-2014-soup/#respondSun, 04 Jan 2015 15:36:11 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1119It says soup, but the concoction in question has a few similarities to a stew, a casserole, a chowder, a bisque or a bouillabaisse. Anyway, it’s a soup I made for the NYE dinner main course at my mother in law’s. Since it turned out rather excellent I feel like sharing.

The most important ingredient of all is good stock. I had two pints of lobster stock that I forgot to blog when I made it, so we’ll deal with that first.

Lobster stock (serves: you right)

1. Have your mother or similar invite you for a lobster party.
2. Nab the shells.
3. Lug a bucket of lobster peel home.
4. Cut up some good stock vegetables such as onions, carrots, leeks, garlic, parsnips (fennel, celery and celeriac are good too) and give them a sizzle in a large pot.
5. Cram the lobster remains in. Be as violent as you need. (I used a potato masher). If the shells refuse to be properly seared, oven roasting them first is a good idea.6. Top up with water, wine and perhaps a bit of sherry.
7. Simmer for as long as you like I’d say, skimming frequently and seasoning to taste.
8. Strain the solids. I ended up using a pillowcase.
9. Simmer down to a more manageable volume
10. Use soon or freeze in a suitable container, for example a milk jug.

Freezing it in a milk jug will likely mean you end up using all of it in one go rather than a little here and there, since you’d have to defrost it to get anything out (apart from the bit with all the salt in it sloshing around the bottom unless the freezer is very very cold.

Since I’m a bit of a cheapskate I didn’t want to use this luxurious stock on just any soup and was at risk of waiting for too long when the opportunity of New Year’s dinner came along just in the nick of time. Also, wanting to defrost the stock well in advance of NYE to see if it was OK I took it out a couple of days early and discovered that we accidentally had turned the freezer off some time around Christmas eve and the temp inside was hovering around zero. Without the stock we’d probably gone for another day or two without checking the freezer, spoiling everything in it.

In a pot suitable for soup-making, start by sizzling the tomato paste and onions, then add potatoes and garlic. I left the potato skin on since almond potatoes are very mushy when cooked and will be held together a bit better by the skin. The reason for the comparatively large amount of potatoes is that they absorb salt and the stock was very very salty. Add water as needed.

Deglace pot with a small amount of wine, then add the stock and wine to taste. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are nearly done, then add leeks, fish, mussels and cream to taste and cook until everything is nice.

Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche and a few shrimp as garnish. Garlic bread or croutons are nice on the side.

The above recipe was cooked up for five adults as main course, but turned out to be enough for seconds for three and thirds for two and also leftovers for lunch for two a few days later, which should add up to 12 servings, but not the largest ones.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/nye-2014-soup/feed/02014souposkilabuljong1buljong2buljong32014soupThrowback Thursday Battle of the Gratinshttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/throwback-thursday-battle-of-the-gratins/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/throwback-thursday-battle-of-the-gratins/#respondFri, 26 Dec 2014 15:14:18 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1114Merry Christmas readers! The posting has been sparse this year and I don’t think I can promise lots of improvement with Nerdcuisine jr entering her second year in life rather soon.

When I started this post it was still Thursday so it counts. It’s a post I’ve been meaning to do for a whole year. It’s like this you see; last year mrs Nerdcuisine’s water broke on December 22nd. No baby came though, so we had to go in for check-ups the following three mornings. On the morning of Christmas Eve we decided to get some work done before having to go to the hospital, so we prepared some Christmas gratins. A classic Swedish one and a probably even more classic Finnish one. I usually have lot of photos in my posts, but this session was done very early in the morning, so most of the pics were mostly pointless. We’ll have to make do with just the finished products.

Gratin 1: Janssons Frestelse
Janssons frestelse (en: Jansson’s temptation) is a gratin of julienned potatoes, onions and cream, flavored with ‘anchovies’, which is, for some reason, a trade name for pickled sprats seasoned in a specific way. There are a few explanations for the name. The one I’m going with claims that an opera singer named Janzon often served the dish at his afterparties in the late 19th century. It’s been an important part of smorgasbords and late night snacks for a long time.

It’s also easy to make. Layer matchstick-cut potatoes, onion slices and ‘anchovies’ in a suitable vessel. season with salt and pepper. Smother the whole thing in double cream mixed with the brine from the anchovies tin and cover with breadcrumbs. Cook for an hour in 200 degrees C. Some people use machinery or graters for the potatoes these days (I’ve even encountered a TV chef using frozen french fries) but I consider the hand-cutting a point of honour.

Gratin 2: LanttulaatikkoLanttulaatikko (en: Turnip box) is a traditional Finnish Christmas dish. Since the main ingredient is mashed swede it’s a bit more like a pudding than a gratin perhaps, but Christmas is no time to be picky. The mashed swede is mixed with treacle, breadcrumbs, eggs and cream, seasoned with white pepper, ginger and nutmeg, plopped in a dish and generously sprinkled with breadcrumbs and baked at 175 degrees or so for 2-4 hours.

To ensure a nice crust on both varieties we usually put a generous helping of butter on top. Some people are content with a few dollops, but I like to slice most of a stick of butter with a cheese cutter and arrange the slices in a nice tile pattern.

These two dishes have several ingredients in common but are very different in most other aspects. One is a standalone dish or part of a buffet, the other more of a side order. And thus ends the battle of the Christmas gratins, Sweden vs. Finland. It’s probably a draw. I had a sceptical attitude towards Jansson’s well into my twenties but after being assigned to make it for student association Christmas parties I warmed to it and it is now my favourite Christmas food, along with pickled herring. My first encounter with lanttulaatikko was an anecdote dad brought home from a work-related Christmas party in Finland in the 90s. It has since entered the list of must-haves by way of my wife’s Finnish ancestry. I like it not only for flavor, but also because it’s an excuse not to boil any potatoes, since I consider eating potatoes at Christmas a waste of stomach room.

Lanttulaatikko on the left, Janssons frestelse on the right.

That’s what we did the morning of December 24th (which is the day for Christmas celebration in Sweden). Terribly early on the morning of Christmas Day we went to the hospital again, this time to induce labor. About 48 hours and a C-section later, NC jr was safe in my arms and stuff like blogs pushed down several notches on the priority list.

Merry Christmas and other holidays again dear readers. Hopefully I can squeeze another post in before the year ends. There seem to be a lot of grandmothers around this time of year…

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/throwback-thursday-battle-of-the-gratins/feed/0lådoroskilalådorPreserve Paradehttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/preserve-parade/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/preserve-parade/#respondTue, 09 Dec 2014 12:41:54 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1109Again, very erratic posting patterns. I’ve been planning for this post for about a week now and will try to type like the wind while baby’s asleep.

For some reason the project with the citrus marmalade set something off and I’ve been boiling stuff with sugar like crazy for some time now. These three were the main events so to speak.

Mango ChutneyMango chutney is of course a classic. I just happened to have about 0.3 mangos in the fridge and couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Added onions, mustard seeds, vinegar, chili, cumin, cinnamon, ginger and sumac. Boiled for a bit. Certainly looks like chutney to me.

Eggplant Marmalade
Eggplant may not be the most intuitive marmalade material, but I’m certainly not the first to do it – in fact, I’m quite sure I’ve eaten industrially produced eggplant marmalade. It may have been from Libanon. Mine contains finely diced unpeeled eggplant, a dash of vinegar (would have preferred lemon) and half the amount, by weight, of gelling sugar. Ordinary sugar is fine too, but the gelling sugar has some pectine added to it and thus gives better texture.

Tomato Marmalade
After a burger night we found ourselves in possession of surplus tomatoes (mrs Nerdcuisine is allergic) so I made marmalade and gave most of it away. Once again I didn’t bother with any peeling. I don’t mind a bit of tomato peel and I think it adds flavor and probably pectin. Classic marmalade recipes usually use equal amounts of fruit and sugar, but that can be quite sweet, so in the eggplant recipe above I used only half as much. Even that proved too sweet with the tomatoes so I would have liked an emergency lemon to turn to, but we didn’t have any. This time I attempted to remedy the sweetness with a generous dose of vitamin C which is quite tart. For added excitement (and to go better with cheeses) I seasoned with black pepper and a sprinkle of chili flakes.

Well, that’s it for today. Make marmalade from anything, and remember that baby food jars are excellent for small batches of preserve.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/preserve-parade/feed/0tomatooskilachutneyeggplanttomatoThree year celebrationhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/three-year-celebration/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/three-year-celebration/#respondWed, 22 Oct 2014 10:02:16 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1106The little wordpress notification gnome just told me it’s three years since I registered nerdcuisine.wordpress.com! How time flies… Regular readers (if any are left) have noticed a decline in activity over the last year or so. Baby Olivia says hi :)

There’s an obvious need for some kind of celebratory action, but I don’t have any material for a proper recipe post, so here’s just a pretty nice picture from last week of panna cotta with home made strawberry jam.

That’s it for this time. Hopefully the next year will have more regular posting. Thanks for hanging around!

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/three-year-celebration/feed/0oskila045Long time no see marmaladehttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/long-time-no-see-marmalade/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/long-time-no-see-marmalade/#respondSat, 13 Sep 2014 23:56:55 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1094My last post was in March. I’ve got a backlog of stuff that I’ve photographed that would take very long time to get up on the blog, but I’m doing new stuff instead, because making it felt exciting. My daughter takes most of my time these days since I’m on paternity leave, but I’m slowly learning to get stuff done in the window between her and my bedtime.

I’ve never made marmalade with oranges or any other citrus but suddenly felt a need to preserve. (I’ve also discretely been pickling cucumbers. A 7 oz. jar of baby food holds one sliced pickling cucumber). I’ve also seldom followed any recipes (except for the sake of consistency) and didn’t want to this time either, so I read a dozen and then made my own up. The important part is really to use equal amounts of fruit and sugar.

Also, jars. Lots of baby food jars for obvious reasons, but anything with a tight lid is good.

Take the fruit – in this case five oranges, a red grapefruit, four limes and three lemons – and peel the rind off with a potato peeler or contraption of choice. Some recipes says to take care to get as little pith as possible, while others simply peel the fruit and slice the whole peel, rind, pith and everything. I found some sort of middle ground. The pith contains pectin which is desirable for a good wobbly marmalade and also causes bitterness, which is desirable in my book.

Next, we slice the rind. It’ll take forever but turn out nice. Or you can make like a barbarian and have at it with a food processor.

Juice extracted and then strained into the pot with the rind. Collect pits and pulp and put in tea strainers.

Juice, rind, a dash of whisky, a pint of water and a small heap of dark muscovado sugar combined in a pot. Tea strainers full of pulp, pith and pits (the three Ps of marmalade??). Simpler and more economic recipes for citrus marmalade make use of the pulp in the actual marmalade, but I felt like giving the juice and rind only-path a go, if, perhaps, only for the nice translucent effect. Simmer for some time to get the pectin release going.

Mixture boiled for some time, then carefully skimmed, then mixed with lots of sugar and boiled for some more time. About half my sugar was preserving sugar, which is a mixture also containing pectin, citric acid and a bit of potassium benzoate. Note the difference in cloudiness and stuff. There’s a million recipes for citrus marmalades out there, so I don’t feel a need to explain the finer points to marmalade making or what the marmalade test is.

After arriving at an agreeable texture, pour the marmalade into cans that until recently were huddling in the oven at 100 degrees (C) to sterilize. Lids were boiled. Take care not to spill marmalade on your or anyone else’s person since it’s like napalm – it sticks to anything and burns for a long time. Dishing the rind out evenly between the jars can be tricky, but I tried.

Apparently, if the marmalade is poured when scalding and one manages to get the lid on properly, the container will be vacuum-sealed in the morning (central bit of lid won’t ‘click’) which is good because it means longer shelf-life. Also, baking cups make excellent lid covers. Also, I worked for quite some time on a full color label (complete with table of contents) only to discover that the printer was all out of cyan and yellow.

That’s it for today! It’s good to be back and I hope it won’t be six months until the next installment!

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/long-time-no-see-marmalade/feed/016 2oskila2 23 25 26 27 210 211 215 216 2Addendum re Lentil Soup and Umamihttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/addendum-re-lentil-soup-and-umami/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/addendum-re-lentil-soup-and-umami/#commentsWed, 12 Mar 2014 11:53:36 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1043Yesterday I hurried to get my first post in months done and forgot to include lots of things in the text. Rather than editing the post I decided to do a new one with some explanation and deeper analysis. Before writing the post on lentil soup I had planned to give suggestions about what else to add and elaborate on veggie umami stuff a bit more.

Lentils, even beluga lentils, aren’t that rich in umami stuff themselves, and may need a helping hand. Stock usually gets the task done, but people are often wary of MSG these days (mostly without reason, since it doesn’t cause migraine, ADD or cancer at all, at least not when used sensibly. Read up on ‘Chinese Food Syndrome’ for more fun facts).

My soup didn’t contain lots of tomato, but it’s high in glutamic acid, another umami agent. Especially sizzled tomato paste or ‘sun dried’ tomatoes are handy tools in this aspect. Even a dollop of ketchup in the right place can enhance many a bland dish.

Onions are another useful umami vegetable as long as you let them cook properly to give off maximum flavor. In the soup I used fried onions because it’s a rather odd thing to do, but also because they’re more thoroughly fried than one would ever bother to do at home and packed with flavor, both from natural umami compounds and from maillard reactions associated with frying. The batter also acts as thickening – it’s funny how things work out sometimes.

Mushrooms are also a classic umami ingredient, but the combination with lentils in soup felt a bit out of place.

Ssamjang, Korean chili paste with garlic and soy beans, has been a trusty companion in the kitchen for several years. The umami content is largely due to fermentation, one of the common methods for getting more umami.

Enough about umami. The other thing I forgot to write at the end of the last post was the suggestion of adding a splash of wine, either red or white, to deepen the flavors in general. Those of a less vegan persuasion can add for example grated cheese, a splash of cream or fish sauce, especially if you’ve made a large batch and are having it for lunch for the fifth day in a row…

I’ve had the images for the next post ready for publication since just after Christmas, but other things got in the way. Hopefully that post will be up soon.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/addendum-re-lentil-soup-and-umami/feed/6oskilaMeat Lover’s Vegan Lentil Souphttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/meat-lovers-vegan-lentil-soup/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/meat-lovers-vegan-lentil-soup/#commentsTue, 11 Mar 2014 15:26:28 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1038Turns out this parenting thing takes quite a lot of time, which means the blog has been on backburner to say the least. A strike of genius (if I might humbly say so) just yesterday prompted at least an attempt to squeeze a bit of blogging in. Since we have to eat anyway it’s mostly a question of scaling back on photo editing to shorten the amount of time spent on a blog post considerably. Now to business.

I’m far from vegan myself, but unlike a lot of people I meet I don’t obnoxiously defend meat eating as some kind of human right or whine about unappealing veggie food. Although vegetarian/vegan food made by nonvegetarians or the uninspired or untalented can be on the bland side some times. My solution to this is to add more umami. And not in a way that attempts to substitute meat for something almost similar to meat or downright ghastly (hello tofurkey). To celebrate the occasion and compensate for the lack of images I’m going to give a proper list of ingredients.

Toast cumin, coriander, Sichuan pepper and mustard seeds in a dry pan and grind. Sizzle along with turmeric, ssamjang and tomato paste in some oil. Add carrots, beetroot, bay leaf, ginger and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Then add stock, lentils and onions and simmer for about 40 minutes while watching closely since lentils have a reputation of sticking to pots. Add more water if necessary, especially since the soup gets quite thick and curryish after a while (which is also nice of course). Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and vinegar (or lemon juice) and serve with flatbread or similar.

Funny punny title, yes. What it means is that today’s food is pesto made with peas instead of basil. And it’s real easy too.

2 parts green peas (fresh or defrosted)
1 part oil
1 part whatever kind of nuts or seeds you like
1 part grated parmesan cheese or similar.
garlic
salt
pepper

Mix all the stuff and blend it to desired texture. Adjust thickness with oil and cheese or more peas. I use a hand blender and get it ready in almost no time at all. The pesto in the picture has more cheese and peas instead of nuts since the pine nuts were way too expensive and my wife dislike sunflower seeds and is allergic to most proper nuts. It works beautifully with for example pasta anyway.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/pea-sto/feed/2oskilaärtpestoJammed Onionshttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/jammed-onions/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/jammed-onions/#respondSat, 04 Jan 2014 06:16:49 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1013It’s finally time for a proper post about food again! This time it’s about a cold sauce that goes well with pâté rustique and similar dishes. The need for such a sauce arose when we got some pâté (and other awesome food) left over from my brother’s 30th birthday party, which me and mrs NerdCuisine missed on account of being busy fussing over NerdCuisine jr. (also known as Olivia) in a maternity ward.

Now, the pâtés I’ve eaten have usually been accompanied by Cumberland sauce, which consists mainly of red wine, black currant jelly and orange rind. I possessed neither and had to improvise something of a similar sweetness and acidity. Also, there’s an unprecedented amount of pictures, just because. These things happen.

This was the first batch of ingredients I decided on – red onion, tomatoes, raspberry syrup, lime, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and red bell pepper. Since this is a highly improvised affair, more stuff will be added along the way.

A bit of chopping later, the vegetables are sizzling in a pot, along with some unannounced red currants I realized were in the freezer. A small pinch of salt gets the sweating going.

With the liquids added, a slow simmer for as long as one can stand waiting is in order.

Another late addition; a squeeze of pomegranate juice (and probably quite a few seeds)

Adding some lime zest. The whole thing has started to thicken somewhat and it’s also probably time to add what else in the way of spices one would like to have.

Acidity was a tad high, so a bit of palm sugar was added to balance it out (and make the ingredient list complicated)

And now it’s time to squeeze the whole thing through a sieve. Mainly because we’re still attempting to mimic some aspects of real cumberland, which means a smooth texture without any bits.

That taken care of, we put the pot to a simmer again, with some gelling sugar and very thinly sliced red onions added in. I used raw onions, but I’d hazard that onions with a bit of sear on them would render the result sweeter and less sharp.

Simmer just long enough for the gelling agent to kick in. A couple of juniper berries also found their way in, and since I overdid it slightly with the sugar, I compensated with a couple of splashes raspberry-flavored balsamico. As the title suggests, the end result is something ranging from rather sweet and sour sauce to comparatively tart jam.

And so – cold, red, sweet sauce accompanying pâté, like nature intended. Long time readers might wonder what the deal is with me and making sweet condiments out of onions around NYE, but it’s pure coincidence actually.

It’s great to be back in business! Next time I think we’ll look into a bit of Swedish and Finnish Christmas food, only some 50 weeks in advance. Take care until then!

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/jammed-onions/feed/0oskilaSDC11785SDC11787SDC11789SDC11790SDC11791SDC11793SDC11794SDC11795SDC11797SDC118012013 in reviewhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/2013-in-review/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/2013-in-review/#commentsThu, 02 Jan 2014 08:37:33 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1011Hello and a happy new year to you all. Several new posts with actual food in them are in pipeline this very moment. Entertain yourselves with this in the meantime

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,400 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 57 trips to carry that many people.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/2013-in-review/feed/8oskilaSorryhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/sorry/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/sorry/#commentsFri, 29 Nov 2013 21:04:44 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1009So sorry for being silent for this long. I’m afraid we’re quite busy nesting over here right now, and I’m given to understand that spare time might also be limited after NerdCuisine jr has been born. Will try to get something up before or around Christmas.
]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/sorry/feed/7oskilaMiraculously Noodle-Free Quick Dish (and 2-year anniversary)https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/miraculously-noodle-free-quick-dish-and-2-year-anniversary/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/miraculously-noodle-free-quick-dish-and-2-year-anniversary/#commentsSun, 20 Oct 2013 10:15:52 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=1002I’ve noticed that I most often go for the noodles when in a hurry these days. That is especially bad considering the fact that I often preach about the evils of instant noodles. (Not only are they made ‘instant’ by deep frying, they’re deep fried in palm oil, one of the least environment-friendly food products of today)

We’ll be having potatoes instead.

Sliced potatoes go in the microwave oven for five or so minutes, just in order to soften them a bit. Much quicker than frying raw potatoes and uses less fat.

Frying potatoes after nuking

Added chopped scallion, some sort of ‘chicken’ ‘kebab’ and frozen green beans (fun fact: their french name, haricots verts, sounds a lot like the Swedish words for ‘Mister Envelope’. I’d say lots of Swedish children grow up believing that’s what they’re actually called.)

Done! While those chicken kebabs aren’t all that appetizing to begin with, I think they can be spiced up to be more palatable. Also, isn’t it good in a way that they actually make use those small bits of chicken left on the carcasses after taking away the nicer parts? Thirdly, since they’re a prefab product that’s slightly odd, why not make it a vegetarian dish by using Quorn or similar instead?

Checking the archives, this post marks the 2nd anniversary of the wordpress incarnation of the Nerd Cuisine blog. (It was actually yesterday, but don’t tell anyone). I started the celebrations early by taking away the (in my opinion) least compelling header image and replaced it with a new nicer one. Thanks to all my followers and occasional passers-by. I couldn’t fathom two years ago that I’d still be at it by now. Let’s hope the next year gets just as good. Now I’ve better take care of that bucket of lobster shells on thhe balcony…

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/miraculously-noodle-free-quick-dish-and-2-year-anniversary/feed/2oskila001 2002 2003 2005 2Feral Fall Foodhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/feral-fall-food/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/feral-fall-food/#respondWed, 16 Oct 2013 22:16:12 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=991Autumn is truly upon us and almost automatically, the food gets stouter and earthier, at least in my kitchen (well not ALWAYS, but what few salads we had during summer have definitely given way to soups, stews and casseroles). One of the returning, short-seasoned ingredients that tend to sneak in is chestnuts. For many years, I bought a few out of interest, then saved them for a more festive meal, until they dried up unsalvageably and had to be thrown out. Over time I’ve learned to get my chestnuts early in the season and use them the same day.

The post title refers to the mix of domesticated and ‘wild’ ingredients of today’s dish, which is a bit of a stretch really, since only the mushrooms are actually harvested in the actual wild.

These chestnuts (already roasted in the picture) were picked up at a grocery store closer to work than home, which I visit only occasionally, mainly for the differences in product range (such as early chestnuts). A short walk down the vegetable aisle also resulted in good looking parsnips, fresh brussel sprouts and some yellowfoot mushrooms.

Mushrooms, having been fried in a dry pan with some salt beforehand, sizzling away with onion and garlic.

Diced potatoes, parsnips and carrots added. The different dice-size was decided upon in order to cook them fairly evenly as they were nuked in the microwave for five minutes before frying.

It’s also time to fry up some salt pork. I had originally decided to use pork loin in this dish, but as I went shopping at the local store for hand soap, potatoes and an apple, I came by short date salt pork at 50% off. I sprinkled some of my dry rub on it, but I think most of the rub stuck to the pan, on account of containing lots of sugar.

To the vegetable pan, add finely diced apple (I use Granny Smith), chopped roasted chestnuts and brussel sprout leaves. (Separating them is a tedious task, but a lot more elegant than chucking whole or chopped sprouts in)

For the plating I made use of the bottle of red wine sauce my brother left last week. It goes rather well with the pork and the apple and the parsnip and so on.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/feral-fall-food/feed/0oskila007 2009 2011 2017 2018 2032 2Pulled Some More Porkhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/pulled-some-more-pork/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/pulled-some-more-pork/#respondMon, 07 Oct 2013 22:16:45 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=985My brother came over the other day and since he hadn’t had dinner he went to the store for food to cook at our place. He returned with a piece of pork shoulder, shaped like a fillet, and marinated in orange and ginger and also some potatoes and a bottle of ready made red wine sauce. He only cooked and ate half of it, so I had the rest for lunch the next day.

Since both my previous attempts mainly involved an oven and nearly whole days of cooking, I knew I had to change method or have something else for lunch. The choice fell on the cast iron pot that’s been heavily featured recently. I tipped the rest of the red wine sauce in, along with a bit of water, pork stock, sugar and half an onion in slices. Simmered the meat, which wasn’t as large as the big chunks of pork neck I’ve used before, for about two hours

Both this step and the next would have had really nice pictures, if the camera hadn’t messed the files up. (My trusty DSLR does become a bit iffy from time to time. It’s about 10 years old.)

Next step was to rub the cooked meat with a new batch of dust, basicall same as the old one but with muscovado sugar instead of regular and some Sichuan pepper and English mustard powder added to spice things up a bit. Then half an hour in the oven at 150 C (300 F) to get a bit of bark going.

Pork pulled and camera working again.

The remains of the simmering part.

Meat reheated in a pan with a dollop of homemade barbecue sauce. It had time to go cold due to slightly poor planning with the garnish and all the fiddling with the camera.

Comparatively quick pulled pork with refried potatoes and some onions and romaine lettuce

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/pulled-some-more-pork/feed/0oskila003 2004 2006 2011 2Yellowfoot Lunchhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/yellowfoot-lunch/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/yellowfoot-lunch/#respondSun, 06 Oct 2013 20:41:55 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=977It would seem this year doesn’t offer a lot of time to go mushroom hunting. Apart from the stuff happening at home, having to work an actual job five days a week is unexpectedly tiring. In years like this, it’s always nice to know when yellowfoot season starts. That is, store-bought yellowfoot.

The yellowfoot mushroom is one of my favourites. It’s abundant (if you know where to look), easy to dry, flavorful and texturally pleasing. If bought it’s also usually cheaper than the other non-farmed mushrooms. (We usually get farmed button, portobello, shiitake and oyster mushrooms and golden chanterelle and sometimes yellowfoot and trumpet of death when they’re in season)

The other principal ingredients of today’s dish are pork loin, cut into strips, creme fraiche and chopped onions and leeks.

Dry frying the mushrooms for a bit before adding fat.

Sweating onions and leeks together with mushrooms, while the meat sears in a separate vessel.

Meat and a whiff of flour goes into the pot. Add a liquid of choice if the pot starts to go dry. I added a bit of stock and then some milk.

With the stew in a more agreeable mood, season and add the creme fraiche. I often use creme fraiche because, while as fat as double cream, its acidity makes it a bit lighter than heavy, cream-based sauces. Simmer for a while, the longer the better. In hindsight a bay leaf would have been nice.

In the meantime, some friendly friend has prepared pasta and a salad (actually, it was me, but hey). Slightly fancier than the average saturday lunch, but we had a friend (who was also our wedding photographer) over for lunch and were in the mood for a bit of fancy.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/yellowfoot-lunch/feed/0oskila001 2002 2006 2007 2008 2009 2Summer Memories: Restaurant Fishhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/summer-memories-restaurant-fish/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/summer-memories-restaurant-fish/#commentsFri, 04 Oct 2013 18:47:20 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=974‘This post title is even odder than usual’ you might think upon reading it. It’s there because today’s post is about restaurant food instead of my own cooking, and that I only very seldom order fish in restaurants.

The post is based on the photo, which I rediscovered while flipping through phone and pad. It was taken during the most expensive lunch I’ve had in my life, eaten while on a road-trip to celebrate my parents’ wedding anniversary.

Pan-fried zander with chanterelles and breaded veal sweetbreads.

Zander is an awesome fish. Very tasty, and as far as I can tell, it’s quite sustainable for the time being. Sweetbreads aren’t quite for me though.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/summer-memories-restaurant-fish/feed/4oskilazanderBacon and Eggs. And Mushrooms. And Rice Noodles and Ssamjang. And Kimchi?https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/bacon-and-eggs-and-mushrooms-and-rice-noodles-and-ssamjang-and-kimchi/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/bacon-and-eggs-and-mushrooms-and-rice-noodles-and-ssamjang-and-kimchi/#respondThu, 03 Oct 2013 21:30:54 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=971OK. New food instead of backlog, because I want to, and I can do what I want with my blog. I started out by trying to figure out dinner and found eggs and bacon. Then I found a couple of mushrooms at the back, along with a leek. Reaching for the granulated garlic in the cupboard next to the fridge I saw the new rice noodles. While the kettle was on to make noodle water I checked the fridge again and found the trusty old ssamjang and the spanking new packet of kimchi. Behind the kimchi I found the cabbage I pickled myself some time ago (back in March).

Fried all the fryable stuff and tossed it together, then put some proper kimchi next to my ko-jaeng-i stuff. I have to say my feeble attempt is rather good considering I hadn’t tried the real stuff before making it. For future reference, this real kimchi is a bit less sour, a lot less sweet and heaps, plenty, lots spicier. I hear Koreans eat kimchi for breakfast and I secretly hope the breakfast variety has a bit less chili in it. On that bombshell we end tonight’s post :)

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/bacon-and-eggs-and-mushrooms-and-rice-noodles-and-ssamjang-and-kimchi/feed/0oskilanoodleskimchiSummer Memories: Skirt Steak and Halloumihttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/summer-memories-skirt-steak-and-halloumi/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/summer-memories-skirt-steak-and-halloumi/#commentsWed, 02 Oct 2013 21:51:32 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=967Working through the backlog some more. Another dinner which involves barbecue activities, but this time it’s about the (in Sweden) elusive skirt steak or bavette as the french call it. Used to be cheap, but now it’s fashionable and in demand.

Yours truly, monitoring the skirt steak and mushrooms, in yet another photographic appearance. I normally barbecue stuff with indirect heat and the lid on, but my dear wife whipped out the phone camera when the lid was off.

Meat was bought sligthly brined, but otherwise only seasoned with salt and pepper. Mushrooms were gradually smothered in home made dry rub.

Mushrooms, skirt steak and halloumi. We were apparently hungry enough to forget to snap a shot of a plate. I assume we also had potatoes and sauce bearnaise or similar.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/summer-memories-skirt-steak-and-halloumi/feed/2oskilabavette 1bavette2Summer Memories: Charbroiled Beef Pattieshttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/summer-memories-charbroiled-beef-patties/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/summer-memories-charbroiled-beef-patties/#respondTue, 01 Oct 2013 20:44:58 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=964I mentioned in the last post that there’s a substantial backlog of unpublished material. Now would be as good a time as any to start sorting that out.

The first dish up is one with only one photograph, and a rather horrible one at that. I’m thinking that it’s probably taken with an iPad. The image file EXIF thingy informed me this meal was photographed, and thereby probably also eaten at the 11th of July.

Charbroiled beef patties, sparsely seasoned but rather smoky. Served with likewise charbroiled eggplants and button mushrooms, caramelized onions, new potatoes and a chanterelle stew.

The real hero of the day is the stew, which is really in undefined stew/gravy/sauce-country. It’s important to first dry-fry the mushrooms with a pinch of salt to remove some liquid and then add a slightly too large knob of butter, a small amount of finely chopped shallots, a bit of pepper and perhaps a sprinkle of thyme. Add as much cream as you like, bring to a boil and reduce to desired thickness. If you’re not in a hurry it’s advisable to simmer the stew very gently for an hour or so to let the flavors develop properly.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/summer-memories-charbroiled-beef-patties/feed/0oskilapannbiffChowder-like Smoky Salvage Souphttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/chowder-like-smoky-salvage-soup/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/chowder-like-smoky-salvage-soup/#commentsMon, 30 Sep 2013 22:27:02 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=956An awful lot of time has gone by since the last post. I’m very sorry for that, and I have a big backlog of meals to blog about. Today’s dish, however, is hot from the stove. (not really, since it’s probably three-four hours since I actually ate it for dinner)

When my wife’s aunt and uncle moved to Copenhagen they gave away quite a lot of food that wouldn’t keep for the trip over to Denmark anyway. Among the things we were given were a tin of smoked mussels, something I felt we’d probably never use. Until I read some stuff about clam chowder. The soup I’m making today is probably breaking all kinds of clam chowder rules, but that’s never bothered me in the past. I didn’t feel like a big round of shopping, so I used up stuff I found. Ye olde crustacean stock, frozen alaska pollock up the seaworthy proteins a bit, bacon, cos at least it’s never made a dish worse, ever, creme fraiche with herbs instead of cream, because it was expires-tomorrow-cheap, some old frozen fries and some leek.

Bacon, leeks and diced fries are the first to go in my new nice cast iron pot, along with some white pepper and powdered garlic. Any chowder purists among the regular readers have probably un-followed by now, but in hindsight I couldn’t tell if the potatoes in the soup was hand-peeled and diced, or simply chopped up fries. It’s not cheaper at all, but handy if you’re in a pinch.

As I added the still frozen stock, the diced fish and the mussels (it’s damn silly, by the way, that the same Swedish company that used to can 1500 tons of locally sourced mussels annually now ships them from Chile instead. Not very sustainable I’d think) second thought struck, and I also added a handful of green beans and a pinch of paprika.

Good food, but crappy photo. Added water, a bit of milk to counter the rather high saltiness, a dash of lemon juice in lieu of white wine and, after bringing the pot to a boil, the creme fraiche.

The final result is a soup with quite a few chowder-like qualities, that I hope at least a quite hungry Mainer would agree to eat. And it feels great to be back in the food blog business.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/chowder-like-smoky-salvage-soup/feed/2oskilasoppingrsoppgrytsopptvåsoppfyrsoppklartWhen Mr and Mrs NerdCuisine Ate New York, pt. 1https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/when-mr-and-mrs-nerdcuisine-ate-new-york-pt-1/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/when-mr-and-mrs-nerdcuisine-ate-new-york-pt-1/#commentsFri, 05 Jul 2013 07:58:36 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=928I think I’ve hinted at us getting married and honeymooning in NYC in more than one of the recent posts (can’t be bothered to actually check while writing a new post though), so it’s about time to relate our travels, or rather what we ate.

Arriving in New York at late lunch time I guess we had some sort of culinary short circuit and ended up in McDonald’s for dinner. Not awfully exciting, but at least a bit interesting to compare Swedish and American McD restaurants. The furniture is the same, but the menu system isn’t. While Swedish restaurants generally have everything on HD monitors, at least the one we visited in NY had backlit menus that looked like the ones used in Sweden in the 90s.

The next item is the hotel’s complimentary breakfast. It had six different pastries, iced water, tea and (by Swedish standards very very weak) coffee. Not exactly a healthy breakfast, but at least free of charge.

After considering a number of options, lunch happened at a deli on the Soho part of Broadway, which had very nice pepperoni pizza. (is this maybe the first time yours truly has actually posed for a blog picture?)

Lunch and shopping taken care of, we ambled back up towards our hotel near Madison Square and ended up at the supposedly Swedish style coffee shop Fika.

They offered a number of rather Swedish foods, but while their drip brewed coffee was the best I had during the New York trip, serving it at my workplace would induce a considerable amount of surly comments. In short, the strength was in the roast and not in the grounds-to-water ratio. Americans reading this and wanting to invite Swedes for coffee, here’s a bit of advice: the correct amount of ground coffee to use with a liter of water is 120 ml or 56 grams (1,97 oz)

The privilege to serve us dinner was awarded to Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. Our decision was based on the proximity to the hotel and the assumption that a place with a line that long has to be pretty good, which it was indeed, even though part of the popularity could be attributed to hip factor. If I was actually giving out grades, Shake Shack would have points deducted for the difficulty of getting a table, which meant sitting on the park benches, which in turn meant one had to fend off the infamous park squirrels.

Following some thinking and debate, we’re not quite certain whether we dined at Shake Shack on June the 4th or 5th, but where we ate the other of those nights is a veritable conundrum. Possibly the pizza place at Broadway and 27th.

6th of June is Sweden’s national day, and since I had told friends back home that we would have a picnic in Central Park we went there. After noticing a flag or two, watching some Robins forage and wave upon wave of squirrels run past we ended up having a ‘picnic’ at the Loeb Boathouse.

The burgers were of a sensible size, but one order of fries would have been plenty for the both of us.

After lunch we strolled over to the Swedish Cottage, which didn’t look like we expected it to, but nothing from 1876 ever does. Then we went to the American Museum of Natural History and got in free of charge because a nice gentleman we met at the entrance apparently had the habit of collecting his member admittance tickets and passing them out to people he met on the way out. Saved us $38 to spend on other things.

I’m fairly certain we ate dinner at Duo that night, which was slightly fancier than we had planned, but still laid back enough that they asked if we wanted to share one order or have one each. I didn’t take any pictures in the restaurant, but here’s a link to what we ate, from their Facebook page: Fancy pants DUO hanger steak.

This post is rather long by now, so I’m going to call it part one and do another as soon as I can manage, with the rest of the trip.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/when-mr-and-mrs-nerdcuisine-ate-new-york-pt-1/feed/19oskilanyfood1nyfood2nyloebburgerSpuds and Patties? Must be Summer!https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/spuds-and-patties-must-be-summer/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/spuds-and-patties-must-be-summer/#respondMon, 01 Jul 2013 20:53:59 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=951Sometimes one just reverts to familiar ground. My potato-and-meat-patties probably make up ten percent of my total blog posts.

I think I’ve done a new potato, arugula, mayo salad before, so this time I added some dijon mustard to the mayo and also subjected the boiled potatoes to a quick fry in the fat left in the pan by the patties.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/spuds-and-patties-must-be-summer/feed/0oskila041 2More Pulled Porkhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/more-pulled-pork/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/more-pulled-pork/#commentsSun, 30 Jun 2013 23:34:43 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=940Sometimes us food bloggers get a bit single-minded about something. I’ve done Japanese noodles, cabbage and bacon, to mention a few. Now it’s apparently pulled pork. In my defense I have to say that pulled pork is very modern and I’m only going with the times.

Last time I simply roasted a pork neck at fairly low temp. This time it’s been allowed to wallow in its dry rub overnight and the cooking method will be a bit more elaborate. A few years back I was given my parents’ spaghetti pot, because it didn’t work with their new induction stove. The pot comes with its own colander, which I’ve often thought should be usable for large scale steaming. And since the whole pulled pork thing has a bit of a macho air about it we’ll be using beer for steam (More specifically a pale ale from Denmark) Some kind of semi-moist pot roast I guess.

Aforementioned meat (one of many pork neck chunks residing in the freezer) in colander/steamer thingy. Beer goes in pot, followed by colander. Lid applied and the whole thing goes into the oven. In my oven it’s a rather snug fit, so one could probably use the stove too, but oven temp is so much more exact. 212 F in this case.

Meat after one hour. It’s showing signs of being cooked, but there’s not a lot of steam going on – more a faint smell of beer going flat.

Meat after two and a half hours. Applied a sprinkle of rub just in case. The smell of simmering beer is becoming rather tangible.

We decided to go have barbecue dinner with my brother, so I left the beer steaming contraption to its own devices

Meat after seven hours. Opening the oven door revealed a considerable amount of steam and the meat has visibly shrunk and is really starting to lose its structural integrity. Satisfied with the level of tenderness I applied another sprinkle of rub and increased temp to 250 F and left the lid off for an hour to get a bit of a bark.

Mission accomplished.

I decided to try this batch of pork in hot dog buns, which works quite well.

It’s also worth mentioning that I took my ‘secret’ sauce from the last post and improved it with a bit more mustard, a darker treacle, plenty of dark muscovado sugar and a dash of liquid smoke.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/more-pulled-pork/feed/4oskila004 2005 2010 2012 2032014 2015 2021 2Midnight Porkhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/midnight-pork/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/midnight-pork/#commentsMon, 17 Jun 2013 23:44:17 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=917With pulled pork being all the rage over here (probably because of American cooking shows) and me having recently eaten some in NY and also the pork necks at the neighborhood grocery being ridiculously cheap this little project more or less came together on its own.

I’m sure there are many established ways to cook pork for pulling, but I prefer to not look things up unless absolutely necessary. My cooking method of choice is the ordinary oven, set to 100 degrees C (212 F) with a dish of water sitting at the bottom to provide some steam.

A two pound piece of pork neck, cut in half to reduce cooking time, brined and then covered in a dry rub consisting of mostly equal parts salt and sugar, half-parts smoked paprika and garlic powder and quarter-parts black pepper, onion powder, rosemary and ginger.

With the pork in the oven it’s time to improvise some sauce. In NY I encountered two types of barbecue sauce; The sweet, gooey sort and the thinner vinegary sort. I liked both and went somewhere in between. The piece de resistance of my concoction, though, is the Danish æblegløgg. (Gløgg (or glögg in Swedish) is the Scandinavian type of mulled wine, in this case non-alcoholic and made from unfiltered apple juice, lemon, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves). For those bad at reading Swedish or guessing what stuff is, the other ingredients are ketchup, honey, smoked paprika, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, mango vinegar and treacle.

Boiling the sauce down to a more syrupy texture.

A sauce that sticks to the inside of a dispenser bottle is pretty sticky indeed…

The reason for the post title being ‘Midnight Pork’ is that that’s about the time when it was done, since I put it in the oven at around 7 PM. I raised the temp to 150 C (300 F) for the last 20 minutes to get a more defined crust.

Let the pulling begin!

Since I hadn’t planned on going out in search of suitable buns around midnight (and we just don’t get those namby-pamby…I mean delicate… buns they have in the US anyway) I put my pulled pork on toast and was very very happy.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/midnight-pork/feed/8oskila006 2018 2010 2019 2024 2028 2Smoked Salmon Hashhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/smoked-salmon-hash/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/smoked-salmon-hash/#commentsSun, 16 Jun 2013 15:57:41 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=909There’s been quite a long silence, for quite good reasons if I might say so myself. I got married on June 1st (which was preceded by a lot of nervousness and preparations) and then went honeymooning in New York for a bit over a week. The trip will be elaborated upon once I’ve sorted through the 900+ pictures.

Swedish hash, or pyttipanna, is made by frying neatly diced potatoes and leftover meats along with chopped onions. We were a bit short in the leftover meats department but had some smoked salmon that we got from my wife’s aunt, who was clearing out her fridge.

In one pan, onions, fried over medium heat until brown. I added some garlic and red peppers to keep the salmon more company.

In a second pan, potatoes, along with a sprig of thyme.

Once everything is more or less cooked, the salmon can be added. It really doesn’t need a lot of pan time, already being smoked.

Potatoes tipped in too. Time to season and stir.

Pyttipanna is traditionally served with fried eggs and pickled beets (and in recent times often with ketchup and similar) but I decided to manage without.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/smoked-salmon-hash/feed/1oskila003 2004 2006 2009 2010 22 Courgette 4 Egg Omelethttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/2-courgette-4-egg-omelet/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/2-courgette-4-egg-omelet/#commentsWed, 15 May 2013 20:43:50 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=903According to Wikipedia, zucchini is the most common used name in Scandinavia for the vegetable in other places more commonly known by its french name courgette. I might have old data, but I think the most widespread name in Sweden at least, is simply squash (probably since we didn’t know about any other squashes for very long and until fairly recently)

I’m only bringing this up since I’m using them in food today. The common green zucchini and the slightly less common golden zucchini. Both were bought fairly cheap and then sort of forgotten in the fridge. Since it’s very unnecessary to let food go bad I needed to make use of them quickly and decided on a Spanish tortilla-like apparition, but with zucchini instead of potatoes.

Grated zucchinis in a pan, with some oil and salt. A chopped onion was added some time later. Since zucchini is mostly water, it tends to get soggy with cooking, and unless some of the moisture is removed, that sogginess is democratically spread through the whole dish. Leave them in the pan for quite some time to get a proper sear and allow some water to steam away.

Once that was done I added some seasoning (white pepper, garlic, chili flakes, thyme) and then four lightly beaten eggs and a cup of grated Raclette cheese that happened to be lying around (and at least texture-wise, it’s not entirely unlike the Spanish Manchego). Once that’s taken care of one can choose either to fry fairly quick and flip the whole thing over, or fry it on lower heat and on only one side.

I decided on a one-sided fry and then a bit of salad.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/2-courgette-4-egg-omelet/feed/3oskila001 2002 2007 2Spicy Chicken 2 (Murgh Korma, more or less)https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/spicy-chicken-2-murgh-korma-more-or-less/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/spicy-chicken-2-murgh-korma-more-or-less/#commentsFri, 10 May 2013 21:38:11 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=899Chicken has only recently been allowed in the kitchen as the significant other softened the bird-eating veto. In combination with the increased comfort in the blending of various spicy spices, this opens up a whole new chapter of cooking, previously unseen in the Nerd Cuisine kitchens.

Not bothering with checking any recipes before cooking, this dish might differ significantly from what other people perceive as proper chicken korma. The spice blend consists mainly of cumin, coriander, turmeric and chili, with smaller amounts of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, sumac, cardamom, nutmeg and ginger.

Ingredients beside chicken include onions, carrots, tomato paste, broccoli (which is a bit out of place I admit, but needed eating) and thick yogurt. Deducing from the recipes I looked at afterwards, it’s far more common to base the sauce on cream.

Somewhat disorganized photo of the described korma dish with rice, naan and kheere ka raita.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/spicy-chicken-2-murgh-korma-more-or-less/feed/1oskila008 2Spicy Chicken 1https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/spicy-chicken-1/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/spicy-chicken-1/#respondThu, 09 May 2013 21:46:33 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=895For nearly three years I’ve lived under the delusion that my significant other disliked couscous. Apparently that is not the case, so to celebrate I made some with spicy chicken.

The spice blend aimed to be something that could be associated with North Africa. I don’t remember everything I put in there off the top of my head, but paprika, cumin, cardamom and cinnamon were major players.

Spicy chicken stew with carrots and broccoli, couscous and cold sauce of a curry-flavored persuasion. Only one photo today, as I didn’t find the dish blogworthy until I started fiddling with plating.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/spicy-chicken-1/feed/0oskila004 2Fast Food, Only Slow…https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/fast-food-only-slow/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/fast-food-only-slow/#respondWed, 01 May 2013 21:47:55 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=888We didn’t even eat half the roast of the last post for dinner that night. I didn’t feel like just slicing and re-heating it. After some thinking I realized that the Greek fast food dish gyros is usually made with pork neck. The name comes from the broiling on a rotating spit of course, but you can’t get all the details right just for the sake of it. Pan fried is totally nice too.

Having previously roasted the meat once, it’s much easier to slice it thinly before frying – and considering that nice pink, it badly needs frying.

Fantasized up a nice seasoning mix, mostly from memory of previously encountered Greek food and a bit of logical reasoning. Equal parts ground coriander seeds, cumin, chili powder/paprika, dried parsley and dried garlic along with half-measures of black pepper, thyme, oregano, rosemary and sumac. Also added a dash of cinnamon after comparing to recipes found online (although most of them, except notably the one in the Wikipedia article on gyros, suggested adding as much cinnamon as oregano, which I suspect would be an overpowering amount)

Give the seasoning mix a quick sizzle before adding the meat to the pan. (Most of the cooking fat is rendered piggy lard from the roasting dish)

To fully imitate proper gyros, the frying has to go on for quite some time since the meat should be bordering on overcooked and charred. I kept the meat in the pan for almost the whole time it takes to cook prefab French fries in the oven (20 minutes).

There was also some tzatziki left from last time. All things considered a really nice dish just like the ones from the fast food joints, with slightly healthier fries since they’re baked instead of deep fried and slightly less healthy meat since it’s fried in considerable amounts of fat instead of broiled. And there are four more pounds of pork neck in the freezer…

Someone complained yesterday that I don’t pay enough attention to the finished dishes in my blog posts. I’ve tried to come up with more than the above paragraph, and I realize that it’s simply not my forte. I often enjoy cooking the food slightly more than eating it I think, and by the time I’ve come to the presented plate of food-part of the blog posts I mostly want it over and done with.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/fast-food-only-slow/feed/0oskila002 2001 2003 2004 2005 2Garlic-studded Pork Neckhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/garlic-studded-pork-neck/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/garlic-studded-pork-neck/#commentsMon, 29 Apr 2013 22:25:09 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=882Went to the store to catch up on vegetables a bit. Not a lot of those at home lately. Stumbled upon an almost suspiciously good offer on pork neck for members of the cooperative. Took one home, studded it with garlic.

I didn’t bother with tying it this time. There’s a limit to how fancy one manages to be on a Monday afternoon. Apart from (fresh) garlic it’s been brushed with dark soy sauce and sprinkled with crushed black pepper and thyme. If you have the time, do brine your pork neck before roasting. It just gets so much better.

Here’s the pork neck after perhaps an hour in the oven. I relied solely on the meat thermometer’s alarm (which was a bit off this time. Had to microwave the sliced meat a bit since I don’t trust even slightly pink pork.)

While the roast was roasting, some corn on the cob got prepared, along with a simple but effective tzatziki.

Those three elements are seldom seen on the same plate, but they were all good!

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/garlic-studded-pork-neck/feed/3oskila002 2003 3005 2Moussaka, sort of.https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/moussaka-sort-of/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/moussaka-sort-of/#commentsFri, 26 Apr 2013 17:41:14 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=872Minced pork, button mushrooms and fresh garlic at great discounts and the refrigerator runneth over with eggplant and half-zucchinis (OK, one of each, but you get the idea). In my book that spells moussaka or something pretty similar.

Fresh onions and garlic and a bag of shrooms.

Frying stuff. Also making sure the seasoning has a rather strong Mediterranean feel to it.

Slicing eggplant lengthways with the assistance of a Scandinavian cheese-slicer. Other similar tools are probably just as good. I had a nagging feeling that eggplant and zucchini often are pre-cooked in some fashion to reduce the liquid content, but didn’t bother to (which resulted in a very wet final product. Be warned!)

Since I’ve written papers concerning both digital imaging and how the hiker should dress, I’m pretty good at working with layers. A lasagna-like structure, but without the béchamel.

Putting a cheese sauce on top. Should have had more and thicker sauce (in conjunction with dryer sliced veg) for the best result.

But what if one simply wants a green pea soup, without bells and whistles? That’s fine too. (we only decided to have soup for dinner since it’s quick and cheap and Star Wars was going to be on in ten minutes)

Mine contains onions, green peas, vegetable cube stock, milk and a dash of lemon. Put the hand blender to it for as long as you can be bothered to and then add some more whole peas.

Soup made from about 2 lb of frozen peas and two pints of fluids is enough for two large helpings or four small.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/non-opulent-green-pea-soup/feed/2oskila002 2My Big Fat Swedish Pancakehttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/my-big-fat-swedish-pancake/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/my-big-fat-swedish-pancake/#commentsSun, 07 Apr 2013 23:03:07 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=862After a bit of surfing around I came to the conclusion that baking pancakes in the oven is a quite local Swedish/Finnish thing, with oven pancakes more often being served as a main dish and ‘normal’ pancakes for dessert. This only came up because we had one for dinner yesterday and I’d be interested to know whether similar dishes occur in other parts of the world. Also, since I’m given to understand that pancake batters are different in different places I’m going to include an actual list of ingredients, with measurements, which is pretty close to a first.

I’ve always been a bit skeptic about oven pancakes, probably because of the ones served in school cafeterias (commonly known as wrestling mats) but homemade ones are clearly much better (ooh, surprise…)

Oven pancake batter (serves 2-3)

600 ml milk

300 ml wheat flour

½ teaspoon of salt

3 eggs

A standard recipe contains just the above (and can also be used for pan-fried Swedish pancakes) but I have to be different of course, so I’d suggest adding a small amount of fat, like oil or butter, and half a teaspoon or so of baking soda.

Mix everything together thoroughly and pour into a greased baking tray or ample size dish. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 225 C. Serve with jam.

This particular pancake has some bacon in it and is served with a sprinkle of leeks and blueberry jam. I would have wanted the leeks in the batter as well, but the oven pancake aficionado of the household vetoed that. You can put all kinds of stuff in the batter though. Carrots, apples or berries would probably be nice.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/my-big-fat-swedish-pancake/feed/4oskila002 2Mongolian Style Pork Loinhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/mongolian-style-pork-loin/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/mongolian-style-pork-loin/#commentsSun, 07 Apr 2013 10:47:14 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=854Read about Mongolian food in the newspaper and became a bit interested. Thought about the article for a couple of days and then decided to try cooking something that more or less resembled that particular cuisine. A bit of googling around hints that this dish may or may not actually be authentic, but could be a Chinese impression of what Mongolians eat or a westernized version. The recipe in the paper was intended for beef – i have no idea whether just substituting beef for pork will be odd or not.

The marinade, which is the significant part of this type of food, I’d say. It contains dark soy sauce, sugar, an egg, rice vinegar, oil, powdered chili peppers, baking soda and tapioca starch. The recipe also called for hoisin sauce, but I made my own instead combining ssamjang, Worcestershire sauce and powdered garlic. I have no idea what the baking soda is for, possibly something about crunchiness. The original recipe also called for grated ginger, which I didn’t have.

Strips of pork go in marinade. Longer is better, preferrably at least an hour.

These three are the rest of the dish, apart from rice. Carrots are nearly always cheap and the spring onions and zucchinis were this week.

While the meat is marinating, fry the vegetables for a bit. Mushrooms would probably be good too. Mixing everything together in the same pan could end up chaotic and ugly-looking since the marinade contains egg and starch and would likely stick to everything.

Put vegetables aside and stir-fry the meat. This is too much meat for one pan really. It’d been better to use two pans or fry twice. The recipe said to fry quickly over high heat, but they used beef and not pork, so I had to be a bit more careful.

A bowl of supposedly Mongolian pork, some vegetables and rice. Had the meat and marinade been prepared say the day before, the cooking part had been really quick, which lunch-box improvisers like me appreciate.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/mongolian-style-pork-loin/feed/1oskilaIMG_1149IMG_1150IMG_1151IMG_1152IMG_1153IMG_1154Shrimp Soup and Pão de Queijohttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/shrimp-soup-and-pao-de-queijo/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/shrimp-soup-and-pao-de-queijo/#respondFri, 05 Apr 2013 17:59:09 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=845We were invited to a potluck dinner on Easter Monday and my mother had kindly donated a pound of shrimps, which, combined with the shellfish stock made last Easter provided a good base for a most excellent soup.

Leeks and carrots to begin with, along with some potatoes to give a bit of body.

The haphazardly shelled shrimp keeping the defrosting stock company.

Stock, water, shrimp and seasoning added. Classic bisque recipes call for brandy and/or sherry, but I don’t keep those in the house. Nothing wrong with a bit of white wine though.

Ten minutes of blending and a pint of cream later the soup is done, if a bit on the lumpy side. For a proper bisque the shrimp shells would have been along for the whole ride, but one doesn’t want to attempt a smooth creamy soup with shells and only a hand blender.

This has to be the most horrible phone pic I’ve ever voluntarily put on the web. It’s a plate of soup accompanied by a pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) which we also made. The process mostly involves stirring tapioca starch into liquids and adding cheese, so I’m skipping that part. There are a lot of fine recipes online though, so try it! If you’re in a country where tapioca flour isn’t readily available in most supermarkets (such as Sweden) try the Asian grocery stores.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/shrimp-soup-and-pao-de-queijo/feed/0oskilaIMG_1144 2IMG_1145 2IMG_1146 2IMG_1148 2005 2Defacing Fish Souphttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/defacing-fish-soup/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/defacing-fish-soup/#respondFri, 22 Mar 2013 20:00:38 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=836Today’s dish is a very fishy soup. I was trying to think up something that would involve the Hong-Kong style shrimp noodles that had found their way into my kitchen. I didn’t feel like going to the store again to get proper fish, so I dug some fish sticks out of the freezer.

Just putting straight up fish sticks in a soup would quite likely be a horrible experience, so I quickly fried them and peeled the breading off (It’s the breading that’s good anyway). When I was a kid, fish sticks were white on the inside, but I guess that with Atlantic cod population plummeting, pollock or something was a better alternative.

These noodles are wheat noodles flavored with a bit of shrimp. New to me, but seem tasty. Here they are cooked and put in a bowl together with Chinese cabbage, carrots and garlic sprouts. (Yes, there’s been a lot of cabbage and sprouts recently, but that’s what happens when one wants to use everything up)

Former fish sticks sitting in a pot of boiled broth containing katsuobishi dashi (made from fish flakes) and a dash of rice vinegar. After a while the pieces started to float, so I assumed that they were done, especially since they already had been cooked once.

Pot tipped into bowl and soup done.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/defacing-fish-soup/feed/0oskilasticksveggiesfishsoupWe’re frying salad now?https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/were-frying-salad-now/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/were-frying-salad-now/#commentsTue, 19 Mar 2013 22:28:01 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=833Here in Sweden, Chinese cabbage (or nappa cabbage, or napa cabbage) is mostly encountered in a salad bowl, but in Korea it’s commonly used for kimchi (i.e. fermented and spiced) and in China the seeds are pressed for cooking oil. It’s also used in stir fries in many stir-frying countries, something which seems pretty far fetched to a Swedish palate.

I had to try it of course and whipped up a lunch box, containing fried rice, garlic sprouts and Chinese cabbage. In the end I added some prefab meatballs to get more protein in there. It wasn’t bad at all and I recognized the texture, so I think I must have had it on occasion in a box of Thai or Chinese take-away.

Super ugly phone photo today, because I was in a hurry.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/were-frying-salad-now/feed/1oskila003 2Eight Minute Lunch Boxhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/eight-minute-lunch-box/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/eight-minute-lunch-box/#commentsFri, 15 Mar 2013 21:11:20 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=828Tram to work leaves in half an hour, you forgot to pack lunch the night before and the takeaway opportunities at work are sketchy at best? Fear not. Do like this:

1. Put on kettle with just enough water to soften a block of noodles.

2. Heat a pan

3. Chop some garlic sprouts and put in pan with oil. Add some kind of spice that benefits from a bit of sizzling, like Sichuan pepper.

4. Toss some frozen okra in the same pan. Be careful, because the oil will not like this at all and end up everywhere.

5. When the kettle is boiling, pour water over noodles in bowl.

6. Keep stirring pan.

7. Drain noodles and add to pan. Season some more.

8. When the sear on the okra is satisfactory, scrape everything into a box.

9. Fry an egg and put in the box.

10. Finishing touches such as condiments.

The lunch in all its glory. I got hold of some Taiwanese wheat noodles that are spinach flavored according to the label, but only contain flour, water, salt and food coloring E102 and E133. Those colorants happen to be Tartrazine and Brilliant Blue FCF, both of which are synthesized from petroleum and may be harmful to people with allergies or asthma (And therefore used to be forbidden in Sweden until the EU made a fuss) The two condiment dollops are ssamjang (top) and sambal oelek (bottom).

All of this can be done inside eight minutes. Remove the egg (and perhaps add more vegetables) and you’ll have a vegan lunch instead.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/eight-minute-lunch-box/feed/4oskila017 2A Quick Pie Tiphttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/a-quick-pie-tip/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/a-quick-pie-tip/#respondTue, 12 Mar 2013 00:59:53 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=825Here’s a suggestion for what to do with lots of leftover bolognese sauce if you happen to have a bag of instant mashed potatoes around the house. Make a pie not dissimilar to the traditional shepherd’s. Instant mash is a terrible thing to do to potatoes, but quite handy for those days when fancy or wholesome or tasty aren’t the top priorities.

Since I had not only half a pot of bolognese sauce, but also quite a lot of button mushrooms, I whipped up a bit of mushroom stew to layer in between the meat sauce and the mash lid.

I substituted at least half of the water used for a four helping bag of mash for cream and eggs, and also added a cup or so of grated cheese.

30 minutes in the oven should do it, since most of the ingredients are already cooked and a nice crisp surface is the most important bit.

For some reason a piece of mushroom found its way to the top of the pie, and removing it after baking would have looked odd.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/a-quick-pie-tip/feed/0oskila004 2More Noodly Frolicking: Sobahttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/more-noodly-frolicking-soba/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/more-noodly-frolicking-soba/#commentsMon, 11 Mar 2013 01:10:38 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=819As said before, I got hold of a lot of interesting stuff at that Asian store recently. One of them was Soba noodles, which are made with buckwheat (perhaps something for gluten sensitives to look into?) In addition, the little supermarket on the way to work had dirt cheap button mushrooms. Like so often before, the resulting food is some kind of general fusion of Japanese and Korean, interpreted by someone with limited actual experience of either.

Frying up a considerable amount of sliced mushrooms, along with a bit of carrots, shallots, garlic sprouts and a little bit of celery

Plop slightly undercooked noodles into pan. Season a bit, with for example light soy and Worcestershire sauce (sitting in for mirin. That stuff is really expensive)

Served up with a fried egg and a knob of ssamjang. For a proper Korean meal one should have kimchi. I didn’t feel like doing a weekend of fermenting napa cabbage, so I cheated a bit and just pickled some white cabbage. Just mix up one part distilled vinegar with two parts sugar and three parts water. Add salt, chili and garlic to taste and chuck in cabbage, onions or whatever tickles your fancy. The resulting condiment could be regarded as something halfway between Korean kimchi and Japanese tsukemono.

Cook some spaghetti or other pasta of your choice and then give it a quick sizzle together with the garlic and shallots.

Plate and add shrimp, olives and garlic bread. I also sprinkled a pinch of chili flakes to add some zing.

With proper planning, the dish can be done inside the time it takes to bring water to a boil and cook the pasta. I’m thinking that it could be served as a starter just as well as a reasonably elegant lunch or a simple but tasty main course.

]]>https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/shrimped-spaghetti/feed/0oskila011 2012 2016 2Clearance Stew: Gumbo-inspired Muckhttps://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/clearance-stew-gumbo-inspired-muck/
https://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/clearance-stew-gumbo-inspired-muck/#commentsFri, 08 Mar 2013 08:34:53 +0000http://nerdcuisine.wordpress.com/?p=802It was one of those days when the leftovers and odds and ends reached critical mass. A number of loose food ends that are at risk of going bad unless they’re chucked out (which is very unfashionable these days) or made into a clearance stew (a.k.a. fridge stew). Such stews can take any number of directions, depending on what it is that you’ve forgotten behind the eggs and the jam. The deciding factor for me was probably the bag of okra pods in the freezer. I bought them just because I could, with only a vague idea that they’re used for thickening in Cajun cooking. As per usual, I knew very little about the dish I was going to get inspired by, in this case gumbo. Apart from okra I seemed to recall that onions, celery and green peppers were important, and that it was supposed to be fairly spicy. From there it was touch and go.

Leftover spanish chorizo, beef stock cubes, ground beef (bought just before Christmas, frozen and forgotten) green bell pepper, the last bit of savoy cabbage, shallots, carrots, cured sausages of some kind, red chili pepper, mushrooms, garlic, onion, celery and okra. Since the main protein is ground beef, this dish can at most be Cajun-inspired or have a hint of Louisiana, but my intention wasn’t to make actual gumbo, but rather to make a stew that’d last all week.